Note: These features may be subject to change without notice. Hardware design files will be made available shortly after the board enters final production. Current estimate of public availability is June 2014.

Accessories

Hardware Notes

Board Layout

Power Plug

The Minnowboard Max uses a 5.5 x 2.1mm barrel 5V power plug, and if bundled will ship with a 2.5A power supply. It is a Center Positive power supply, indicating that the center (tip) of the output plug is positive (+), the outer barrel is negative (-).

D1 (LED)

This is the power indicator, when lit power is being supplied to the board

D2 (LED)

This is the On/Off status indicator. When lit the system is running.

HDMI

The MinnowMax uses a Type D micro-HDMI connector. This is a standard port, for which cables and adapters can be readily picked up from most electronics stores

Ethernet

The MinnowMax uses a Realtek RTL8111GS-CG PCIe based chipset to provide 10/100/1000 ethernet connection. the results of some performance tests using iperf are available HERE.

Low Speed Expansion (Top)

*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

The low speed connector uses 0.1" (2.54 mm) Male header pins in a 2 x 13 array, for a total of 26 pins. Pin 1 is the in the row closest to the power connector, and closest to the board edge.

Layout

Description

Name

Pin

Linux GPIO #

Linux GPIO #

Pin

Name

Description

Ground

Gnd

1

2

Gnd

Ground

+5V Power

VCC

3

4

+3V3

+ 3.3V Power

SPI Chip Select 1

GPIO_SPI_CS#

5

220

225

6

GPIO_UART1_TXD

UART Transmit

Master In / Slave Out

GPIO_SPI_MISO

7

221

224

8

GPIO_UART1_RXD

UART Receive

Master Out / Slave In

GPIO_SPI_MOSI

9

222

227

10

GPIO_UART1_CTS

CTS / GPIO

SPI Clock

GPIO_SPI_CLK

11

223

226

12

GPIO_UART1_RTS

RTS / GPIO

Clock / GPIO

GPIO_I2C_SCL (I2C #5)

13

243

216

14

GPIO_I2S_CLK

Clock / GPIO

Data / GPIO

GPIO_I2C_SDA (I2C #5)

15

242

217

16

GPIO_I2S_FRM

Frame / GPIO

UART Transmit / GPIO

GPIO_UART2_TXD

17

229

219

18

GPIO_I2S_DO

Data Out / GPIO

UART Receive / GPIO

GPIO_UART2_RXD

19

228

218

20

GPIO_I2S_DI

Data In / GPIO

GPIO / Wakeup

GPIO_S5_0

21

82

248

22

GPIO_PWM0

PWM / GPIO

GPIO / Wakeup

GPIO_S5_1

23

83

249

24

GPIO_PWM1

PWM / GPIO

GPIO / Wakeup

GPIO_S5_4

25

84

208

26

GPIO_IBL_8254

Timer / GPIO

NOTE: Pins 5-26 are shown above with their PRIMARY configuration, any pin may be switched to being a generic GPIO as well. This would give a total of 22 GPIOs, with two of those being PWM capable.

Denotes Pins that have issues with current firmware in GPIO mode

Denotes Pins that have been tested and work as expected. Remember to drive the pin to ground.

High Speed Expansion (Bottom)

*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

The High speed connector uses a TE Connectivity compatible 60-pin header. The generally recommended header is the 3-5177986-2, or the 60POS .8MM FH 8H GOLD part that rises 7.85mm, allowing for 3/8" standoffs at the corners to be used to attach the lure to the minnowboard.

NOTE: The I2C pins have the same property as the pins in the Low Speed Expansion Header, in that their primary purpose is I2C, but can be switched to GPIO in the firmware. In firmware this is the I2C #6

Denotes Pins that have issues with current firmware in GPIO mode

Denotes Pins that have been tested and work as expected. Remember to drive the pin to ground.

SPI Header to Firmware flashing J1

*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

This is a pinned out port to allow for external flashing of the boot spi. Dediprog and Flyswatter devices have been tested and verified to work with this.

Layout

Description

Pin

Pin

Description

DDP_1V8

1

2

Ground

DDP_SPI_CS

3

4

DDP_SPI_CLK

DDP_SPI_MISO

5

6

DDP_SPI_MOSI

7

8

DDP_IO3L

Power Connection J2 (SIP2_FAN)

*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

This is a 5V 2-pin pin out originally intended to be used for a CPU fan. The single core (E3815) and the dual core (E3825) however use passive heat sinks, and thus do not, under normal circumstances, need a fan. It is theoretically possible to pull upwards of 1A through this port, however you should refer to the released schematics to verify that number before attempting to use this for anything.

NOTE: This is not populated on the Single, or Dual core boards. This can be populated if needed, and will provide the above power

Layout

Description

Pin

Pin

Description

Ground

1

2

+5VSB

Switch Jumper J5

*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

This pin is intended to allow for power toggling via a remote switch or relay. It is fundamentally no different than pressing SW1, and behaves identically.

NOTE: This is not populated, by default.

Layout

Description

Pin

Pin

Description

+5VSB

1

2

Ground

SATA LED J6

*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

This is intended to be an HD LED type activity indicator, shorting the pins enables, leaving it out disables.

NOTE: This is not populated, by default.

Layout

Description

Pin

Pin

Description

1

2

+V1P8S

SD Card Write Protect J7

This is a jumper point, mostly available for debugging, that enables the sd card write protect explictily. This is not populated on production boards.

Known Issues

MinnowBoard-MAX Open Bugs (Bugzilla)

A1

Hardware

USB

There is a potential issue when using a powered USB Hub. If the hub, erroneously, provides power over the USB 3 or USB 2 input connector, the MinnowBoard MAX will use that as power. This is in violation of the USB spec, and will be rectified in a later revision of the MinnowBoard MAX.

It is suggested that you check powered USB hubs to confirm that they do not provide power back to the board, as described, and if a hub is found to do this, please report it here. A hub found to be doing this should be used without being externally powered if used at all.

Firmware

See the bug list, linked above.

Unknown

Monitors

There is an issue with regards to some monitors not being able to display from the MinnowBoard MAX. Most monitors seem to be fine, but some will either completely not show a display (even at firmware boot-up) or may only show a display after the operating system is booting.

This turns out to be an issue with regards to HDMI vs. DVI detection and initialization. A work around is being added into the firmware to resolve this.